Kan., Okla. Conduct Joint Livestock Disease Drill

Trucks that could be hauling livestock along the Kansas and Oklahoma border were detained and their drivers questioned Thursday, during a drill aimed at protecting the nation's food supply from foot-and-mouth disease.

State and local authorities set up roadblocks and pulled livestock vehicles over near Sitka, Kan., and Turpin, Okla., to ask questions about their loads and destination. It was part of what officials said was the first two-state exercise to halt the movement of livestock should the disease break out.

"Right now, we have three 18-wheelers pulled over, but all these cattle trailers have been empty so far," said Jack Carson, spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture. "Nobody expected it, but everybody has been courteous."

The exercise comes only two days after final congressional approval of the first $32 million in funds for planning and construction for a proposed lab that would research foot-and-mouth and other animal diseases at Kansas State University in Manhattan. The 520,000-square-foot National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility would replace an aging lab on Plum Island, N.Y.

Thursday's test, which was monitored by states including Colorado, Iowa and Nebraska, was based on the scenario of a presumptive case of foot-and-mouth disease in another state that would prompt Kansas officials to declare an emergency and clamp down on borders.

There are more than 5,000 access points along Kansas' borders with its four neighboring states, but only 500 that can handle large semi tractor-trailer livestock haulers. Kansas Livestock Commissioner George Teagarden said the state believes that at any given moment, about 50,000 head of livestock are on Kansas roads.

"We realize that we can't stop traffic on every road," he said. "We need to reduce the risk and we don't want to move the disease wherever it is."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said 19.5 million head of livestock were moved across state lines in 2008 for feeding and breeding.